WORD ALERT:

By Stan Persky | January 31, 2001

I was just settling down in front of the tube to watch some boxing on the guys’ channel. Chico and Pretty Boy were about to try to bash in each other’s brains. The announcers were giving bio on the pugilists–the usual hard-luck stories of juvenile crimes, impoverished neighbourhoods, family strains, "human interest" stuff, I think it’s called. One of the announcers pointed out that in the course of preparing for the bout, Chico had suffered some "distractions," and that, in fact, a few days after the fight he would have to appear in a California court on the charge of beating up his pregnant wife. It was the first time I’ve heard beating-your-wife (your pregnant wife!) described as a "distraction." Sort of equivalent to the use of "collateral damage" to describe civilians inadvertently blown-up in a war zone.

Oh yeah, Pretty Boy pounded the crap out of Chico.

148 w.

Author

  • Stan Persky

    Stan Persky taught philosophy at Capilano University in N. Vancouver, B.C. He received the 2010 B.C. Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. His most recent books are Reading the 21st Century: Books of the Decade, 2000-2009 (McGill-Queen's, 2011), Post-Communist Stories: About Cities, Politics, Desires (Cormorant, 2014), and Letter from Berlin: Essays 2015-2016 (Dooney's, 2017).

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